A Look At The Leadership Of Jim Henson, Creator of The Muppets

A Visionary, A Fearless Leader And...

Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, author of Make Art Make Money,  writes in Fast Company, "Jim Henson is remembered as a visionary artist and the creator of the Muppets, but he was also the boss of hundreds of employees who called him “fearless leader.”"

We intuitively know that Henson was a “good boss.” But how should we define a “good boss,” and better yet, how can we become one? Brian Henson has said of his father.

How Do We Become One?

A Leader Like Jim Henson That Is:

• Identify a person’s talent, nurture that talent, and encourage them to look to themselves for a solution
• Be a teacher, empower the people who work with you
• Be patient, you are developing people, not showing how smart you are. Henson did not need to display a big ego, and heaven knows he had a lot to crow about
• Create an infectious mood of laugher and fun – yes you can do serious creative work at the same time. And, did the Muppets demonstrate that over and over again
• Listen for the genius in people, find a way to make others' ideas work
• Master treating failures as experiments on the way to something great
• Love your work and the people who are sharing it with you
• Enjoy the successes and accomplishments of people around you. Having them be great does not diminish you – as Jim Henson has demonstrated
• Be unafraid to try new things – it's the only way innovation happens, really
• Be a role model of fearless, hardworking, generous, and calm, that attitude will easily spread and be as contagious for you as it was for Jim Henson

And Remember…

What's going on around you, the results that are being produced, and the tone of your organization, is a reflection of your leadership. 

A Simple Way To Discover If You Are a Narcissist

What Does Being A Narcissist Mean For Leadership?

In the introduction to an academic paper the authors say, "Some individuals think they are great and special people who should be admired and respected by others." They go on to say that this particular personality, "… is characterized by inflated views of the self, grandiosity, self-focus, vanity, and self-importance."

As I continued reading it struck me that this could well describe many of the people who make it to the higher echelons of leadership in most organizations, people who are admired and are successful.

While narcissism can be a clinical disorder, the authors go on to say, "however, it is also widely studied as a personality trait in non-clinical populations."

So How Do I Discover If I Am A Narcissist?

Easy! Just answer one simple question.

“To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist. (Note: The word ‘narcissist’ means egotistical, self-focused, and vain.).” 

Brad Bushman, a coauthor on the paper and a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University, in quoted in the LA Times saying "Narcissists have no problem admitting they are narcissists. They think they deserve special treatment and they don’t try to hide that from others."

So What If I Am A Narcissist?

Well that all depends on: 

1. The kind of organization you want to build
2. The kind of leadership you want to provide
3. The kind of culture you want to model and nurture
4. The kind of relationships you want to have
5. And...

Some Things To Know

About people who score high on the PLOS ONE Narcissist Scale:

1. They have lower empathy than people who are not narcissists
2. They have less committed to relationships and will end them more easily – a possible clue to the ease with which some executives let people go in a downsizing. 
3. They are more likely to want individual rewards not team or company-based ones. 
4. They are more likely to believe that are worth more than colleagues and should therefore be compensated more favorably and should be given special treatment. 
5. They tend to be much more combative, and more aggression in meeting, and day-to-day interactions. 
6. They have no problem expressing the point of view – mostly as if speaking the truth.
7. …

Now Take The Test

Remember the question: 

“To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist. (Note: The word ‘narcissist’ means egotistical, self-focused, and vain.).” 

Here is the test.

Does Your Score Impact Your Leadership?

Share your insights…

I Have Lost My Confidence

I Have Lost My Confidence

So many things have happened to executives over the last few years: the economy going haywire, change everywhere we turn, the way we have always done things does not work as it used to…

And, a frequent confession, I have lost confidence. The extended conversation continues: I don't know if I have what it takes any more; I don't seem to be able to make the same impact as I used to; I feel I am loosing my grip…

The irony is that all of the people who share this conversation are great people, and the last thing you would know from the outside is they are torturing themselves with variants of, "I've lost it!".  

Confidence Is An Interesting Phenomenon

Confidence is an interesting phenomenon, like any feeling it is immediate and fleeting. 

Moods on the other hand are feelings that persist over time. 

To have a feeling persist it has to be  noticed when it is present, nurtured and sustained. For example, we can be happy as a momentary feeling, usually in response to an external stimulus. Being happy, as a mood, is an internally generated appreciation of life and the myriad things we are grateful for – it is a generative state rather than a reactive one.

Restoring Confidence Is Restoring Ourselves To Ourselves 

Or as Derek Walcott would put it:

The time will come 
when, with elation 
you will greet yourself arriving 
at your own door, in your own mirror 
and each will smile at the other's welcome, 

and say, sit here. Eat. 
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart 
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you 

all your life, whom you ignored 
for another, who knows you by heart. 
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, 

the photographs, the desperate notes, 
peel your own image from the mirror. 
Sit. Feast on your life. 

Or, listen to David Whyte reciting Derek Walcott

None Of Us Speaks "The Truth"

No expert speaks The Truth, no matter how well intentioned the advice, and no matter how seemingly well grounded in research and the facts. We all trade in interpretations, perspectives, points of view… often presented with such authority as to pass for The Truth – but it is all made up stuff nonetheless.

The question that I think that is worth engaging with is, "Is the interpretation of reality I am entertaining, empowering, does it give me a new access to action, does it connect me with who I am really, does it nurture and strengthen my important relationships…?" If the answer is yes, go with it; it is fuel for a life. If the answer is no, change it; create a new interpretation of reality. And, as Walcott put it, "Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you". 

It is all a made up story anyway, so why not make up a story you want to inhabit, that you want to embody?